DEBATE ON LOCATIONAL CLEARANCE

THE application for a locational clearance for the 60-room CSI Hotel and Resort project being planned by the company owned by the family of Vice Mayor Belen Fernandez has been questioned by Councilor Marc Brian Lim.

In a privilege speech on August 9, Lim said he suspects that a resolution being sought by the company from the city council for the granting of a locational clearance for its project by the City Zoning Officer will be “railroaded”.

“I am not opposed to this project. In fact, I am not opposed to any development projects that our city may benefit from. What I am against is the railroading of the process of application, the seeming indifference to the law, the non-disclosure of interests, the disregard for transparency, and the ecological effects of indiscriminate back and land filling. And I am against all of these because the law says so,” said Lim.

Councilor Jesus Canto promptly protested Lim’s statement that the resolution of the SP being sought by CSI would be railroaded.

“This is very unfair accusation. It is a direct affront to members of the city council,” said Canto.

He added: “We are not a rubber stamp of the vice mayor nor of the mayor.”

SANGGUNIAN’S FUNCTION

When Lim pointed out that the request for the clearance should have first passed the office of City Mayor Benjamin Lim, the councilor’s father, he was reminded of the mandate of the Local Government Code.

Atty. George Mejia, technical consultant of the city council, citing Section 458 of the Local Government Code, argued that the authority to process and approve subdivision development plans belongs exclusively to the sanggunaing panlungsod.

Fernandez, on the other hand, assured that the company will fully comply with all legal requirements needed to launch the project.

“Our family will comply with all the requirements because we would like to set the example being the vice mayor of Dagupan,” said Fernandez.

Fernandez said that while she is the council’s presiding officer, she will inhibit herself when Resolution No. 4688 is discussed and will leave the matter to the discretion and wisdom of the 12 city councilors.

“The matter is now in the hands of the city councilors,” said Fernandez.

The proposed hotel and resort project was already issued an Environmental Compliance Certificate (ECC), aside from the ECC it secured when it backfilled its site.

BUSINESS DISTRICTS

As to the claim of the younger Lim that the backfilling of the Fernandez’ fish pen along Jose R. de Venecia Expressway Extension is a violation of the Comprehensive Land Use Plan (CLUP) approved in 2005, the vice mayor pointed out that when the new road was completed in mid 2007, the character of the fishponds in the area had already changed.

The Jose R. de Venecia Expressway Extension was not existing at the time the CLUP, supposedly incorporating the inputs of UP Planades, was approved by the city in 2003.

The CLUP has identified the growth areas of Dagupan as the city’s downtown area, Barangay Caranglaan and Barangay Lucao, where the CSI the City Mall is located and where the proposed hotel and restaurant will be built.

Under the fisheries code, said Fernandez, Lucao, where some of the fishponds are located, is not a protected area, unlike Bonuan, Tambac and Mamalingling.

“We should let the market forces dictate, as they should, what areas can be developed in the city,” said Fernandez, adding that at present, the city offers no other expansion area for businesses except on both sides of the Jose R. de Venecia Expressway Extension.–LM

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